Huaxi: The socialist village where everyone is wealthy

[Starry Messenger]

I never know what to think about China. I have Marxist friends who swear they are socialist and I recently met a Chinese Communist who was very committed to working on socialism with the US socialists. So I was interested when I saw this link on Twitter today and thought I'd pass it along here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/huaxi-the-socialist-village-where-everyone-is-wealthy-6290583.html

Huaxi is a "model socialist village", according to local officials, and was founded by local Communist Party secretary Wu Renbao in 1961. His foresight was to transform a poor farming community into a super wealthy community, built on its clever adaptations of modern agribusiness methods, then its diversification into steel mills, its logistics firms, and its textile businesses.

The commune listed on the stock exchange in 1998 and is now a major corporation in its own right. Its subsidiary companies, built into something that resembles a modern-day conglomerate, exports to more than 40 countries around the world. Huaxi is where Chinese people come to learn how to get rich. At a time when the rest of the world, and indeed much of China, is trying to absorb an economic slowdown, Huaxi is like a parallel universe.

<snip>

Far below, you see the villas and the luxury cars. Every villager gets a share of the corporation's profits and is entitled to a car, a house, free healthcare and free cooking oil.

<snip>

The original founding families, who are known as "stakeholders", number around 1,600 and the average household income is around £100,000 a year, once all the bonuses, pensions and wages are factored in. White BMWs are ubiquitous and the murals, instead of depicting socialist realist muscled workers in overalls, have pictures of happy families living in wealthy villas.

[joshcryer]

1. "giant animals of solid silver"

Holy fucking shit. This is crony capitalism at its best.

They're living on the backs of the factory workers and calling themselves socialists.

[TigerToMany]

2. +1

China is about as "socialist" as Nazi Germany was. Huaxi is nothing but a big company town which is the apex of exploitive capitalism.

China calls their system "socialism with Chinese characteristics" while Germany called theirs "National Socialism". NEITHER country was based on Marxist-Leninism which is the origin of true democratic Socialism.

[Starry Messenger]

3. "Company town", that's what I thought when I read the article too.

I mean, they can't take their wealth with them if they move. And the rest of the country does not share Huaxi's system. I can't imagine how a country can call itself socialist if it's a patchwork of all these different regional economic spheres.

[TBF]

4. That's how I read it as well. nt